I drilled holes through the centers of all the dowels, and then used my bandsaw to shape the head and mouth of the snake. After they were all spray-painted white, I used clothesline to link them all together. Knots in the clothesline in between the dowel pieces keep the segments the right distance apart and allow it to move and bend properly. I put the clothesline in through the mouth and left a couple of inches of it sticking out at the end like a snake's tongue. At the end of the snake, I tied the knot tight against the final dowel segment and then covered that knot with another piece of dowel that had a large hole in one end only. That final piece was glued in place and then I trimmed the back end down to more of a rounded point using the bandsaw again. The last step was painting two black eyes on the snake's head.
I guess it looks more like a ghost than a skeleton, but it was manageable in a short amount of time. The final product is about 42" long. I coiled it up on the front door mat and rang the door bell so Gus could answer the door. He loved it... and he named it Bones.
